Chapter 16
This particular chapter primarily focuses on the ceremony of sexual intercourse that takes places between the Commander and Offred the Handmaid. It describes everything that goes on while the ceremony is occurring. It consists of the feelings and emotions of the Commanders wife, Offred and the Commander while being a part of this whole ceremony.
Offred illustrated Commander's wife's emotions. "The rings of her left hand cut into my fingers. It may or may not be revenge." This conveys the Commanders wife selfishness and insensitivity that while using Offred she is still trying her best to show her anger and frustration towards this whole situation. She is expressing it through any way she can and in this case, using her rings to cut into Offred's fingers. Is this humane? No. Having said that, the whole idea of this ceremony is not humane. It is a situation made to use women solely for the purpose of reproduction in the society of Gilead. Offred does not refer to Serena through using her name, she says the possessive pronoun "her" which reflects that she probably does not respect her as much as she should according to the position she is in compared to the Commander's wife. These feelings are obviously expressed in her mind and mind only. She dare not speak out loud as she does not want to be sent to the colonies where all the unwanted people of Gilead end up. Offred feels as if Serena might be taking "revenge" out on her but she is not completely certain as she also adds before that "it may or may not be". Revenge for having sex with her husband. This show her heartlessness as the Handmaid has no choice because she has been confined to this role and also because Offred is BENEFITTING Serena in every way possible.
Offred goes on to describe her feelings towards what is happened. She says, "Below it the Commander is fucking...I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing." This expresses Offred's emotions towards what is happened to her perfectly. She feels as if she's a victim of this situation. Offred describes the sexual intercourse between her and the Commander in a disrespectful 'dirty' way. Its almost as if this is happened against her will, which emotionally might be the case. Offred got forced to be a Handmaid so her frustrated feelings show through this.\
TO BE CONTINUED.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Sunday, 21 November 2010
The Jezebel Section
Look at chapters 37-39 - the Jezebel section - with the following in mind.
Explore attitudes towards women and sex.
Margaret Atwood, the author of the book The Handmaid’s Tale. She is a radical feminist and believes in all the ideologies that have been formed about men towards women. Atwood illustrates some of the beliefs and ideologies of feminism through different ways throughout the novel. Atwood reveals her radicalism many a times by expressing in her novel that all men treat women unfairly and dictate their every move. Atwood uses a female narrator, who is named Offred (this is not her real name) to show that there is no democracy between men and women, it is a dictatorship. Dictatorships run by men. It values over powering women and being persistent in dominating them.
In the chapters 37 to 39, a place called Jezebel is revealed. The term ‘Jezebel’ derives from the Bible. Jezebel was a woman who passed on iniquity upon the kingdom of the king Ahab. Also the term ‘Jezebel’ is also used to define and describe a rebellious and disobedient woman. Jezebel is a place which consists of women who are solely used for pleasure and fornication. The term fornication is used to describe best what occurs in Jezebel because the commanders are not religiously and lawfully married to the women. This place is evidently opposing and abusing the rules and policies of the government of Gilead. In this section Atwood uses present tense to describe Offred’s experiences of Jezebel. This makes the experiences more effective because for the readers it makes moments come alive as Offred explores and becomes captivated in the contrasting ideas of this place. Up to chapter 36, Atwood expressed her views through using the voice of Offred by conveying that women are mainly used for childbearing. These particular sections focuses on alternative roles for women.
In chapter thirty seven, as Offred is revealing what she observes says, ‘The women are sitting, lounging, strolling, leaning against one another.’ The finite verb ‘are’ is used to emphasise the present tense that Atwood is using to describe Offred’s experience. The finite verb ‘are’ is joined with auxiliary verbs to depict the women’s movements. The auxiliary verbs such as ‘...sitting, lounging, strolling...’ convey a sense of freedom. This is something that the women of Gilead do not have. They don’t have freedom to, they have freedom from. The verbs are portraying that the women are free to be however they want. They do not need any one’s permission to be in any state they wish to be. This expresses how the women of Jezebel differ from the women of Gilead. Atwood has made this Jezebel place to be hidden and a place not many people know about. Women can do as they please in this place. This connotes that Atwood believes, women only rarely have some sort of freedom and that too when men want nothing but pleasure and sex from them. So in theory, women are still not free. They are tied down by one duty or the other.
Another way the women are describes in this section are through clothing. In the society of Gilead, women have to dress in certain colours depending on their status. This therefore makes their status in society prominent to everyone. They are divided and women of different classes do not mix with one another unless for professional reasons. Offred continues to set the scene of Jezebel and then describes the clothing of the women. She says, ‘The women on the other hand are tropical, they are dressed in all kinds of bright festive gear.’ This is just one quote to describe the dressing of the women in Jezebel. Offred carries on great detail describing the different kinds of outfits. The idea of women all dressed differently emits a sense of individuality and originality. They are not under any certain status, position or categorised. The adjective ‘bright’ and ‘festive’ are just some of the adjectives used to describe the clothing. The adjective ‘bright’ portrays a feeling of happiness and the importance of light in a very dark place. In this case the importance of ‘excitement’ in a dull society like Gilead. The adjective ‘festive’ displays a sense of high spirits and energy. This connotes positivity and the occurrences of different things happening at once. Festive connotes festivals and the usual conventions of a festival are many events taking place on one occasion. This implies that there are different events occurring in Jezebel and different in the actual society of Gilead. Although these are just descriptions of clothing, it still conveys ideologies about the opposing environment, Jezebel.
In the opening paragraph of chapter 39 Offred speaks about how she notices and observes the desires of the commander to have sexual intercourse with her. ‘The commander has a room key...he shows it to me, slyly. I am to understand.’ The use of the adverb, ‘slyly’ indicates that the commander has to be sneaky and conniving to get what he wants. He has to be shrewd to fulfil his sexual needs. Offred then carries on expressing her emotions on how she feels when the commander is so physically close to her. She says, ‘But it’s no good, I lie there dead like a bird. He is no monster, I think.’ Atwood uses the simile, ‘like a bird’ to express what kind of feelings Offred is undergoing at this moment in her life. The thought of a bird brings freedom and liberty to mind but as soon as the word ‘dead’ is replaced before it, it suddenly emits a frozen, insensitive and a cold feeling. It’s almost as if Offred has got ‘used’ for sex so many times that now the feeling of being objectified has desensitised within her. After describing the commander as a ‘monster’ which gives him animalistic features, Offred uses the personal noun ‘I’ and abstract noun ‘think’ these two nouns convey a sense of confusion and perplexity. It’s almost as if Offred is not sure whether the Commander is a human with feelings or a evil heartless monster.
In conclusion, after having stated several ideologies expressed in some passages of the novel, it has come to notice that Margaret Atwood has a very negative view about men and their attitudes towards women. She expresses these views in harsh ways, making situations sound extreme and unreasonable which put ‘all’ men in a very pessimistic light. Atwood has made men look like users. It’s either using women for childbearing, using women for sex and pleasure or using women for other various things such as cooking and cleaning. She has somehow in every way possible shown that women are only used by men, their needed and perhaps not wanted as much. There is a different between want and need. Both have different feelings behind them.
Explore attitudes towards women and sex.
Margaret Atwood, the author of the book The Handmaid’s Tale. She is a radical feminist and believes in all the ideologies that have been formed about men towards women. Atwood illustrates some of the beliefs and ideologies of feminism through different ways throughout the novel. Atwood reveals her radicalism many a times by expressing in her novel that all men treat women unfairly and dictate their every move. Atwood uses a female narrator, who is named Offred (this is not her real name) to show that there is no democracy between men and women, it is a dictatorship. Dictatorships run by men. It values over powering women and being persistent in dominating them.
In the chapters 37 to 39, a place called Jezebel is revealed. The term ‘Jezebel’ derives from the Bible. Jezebel was a woman who passed on iniquity upon the kingdom of the king Ahab. Also the term ‘Jezebel’ is also used to define and describe a rebellious and disobedient woman. Jezebel is a place which consists of women who are solely used for pleasure and fornication. The term fornication is used to describe best what occurs in Jezebel because the commanders are not religiously and lawfully married to the women. This place is evidently opposing and abusing the rules and policies of the government of Gilead. In this section Atwood uses present tense to describe Offred’s experiences of Jezebel. This makes the experiences more effective because for the readers it makes moments come alive as Offred explores and becomes captivated in the contrasting ideas of this place. Up to chapter 36, Atwood expressed her views through using the voice of Offred by conveying that women are mainly used for childbearing. These particular sections focuses on alternative roles for women.
In chapter thirty seven, as Offred is revealing what she observes says, ‘The women are sitting, lounging, strolling, leaning against one another.’ The finite verb ‘are’ is used to emphasise the present tense that Atwood is using to describe Offred’s experience. The finite verb ‘are’ is joined with auxiliary verbs to depict the women’s movements. The auxiliary verbs such as ‘...sitting, lounging, strolling...’ convey a sense of freedom. This is something that the women of Gilead do not have. They don’t have freedom to, they have freedom from. The verbs are portraying that the women are free to be however they want. They do not need any one’s permission to be in any state they wish to be. This expresses how the women of Jezebel differ from the women of Gilead. Atwood has made this Jezebel place to be hidden and a place not many people know about. Women can do as they please in this place. This connotes that Atwood believes, women only rarely have some sort of freedom and that too when men want nothing but pleasure and sex from them. So in theory, women are still not free. They are tied down by one duty or the other.
Another way the women are describes in this section are through clothing. In the society of Gilead, women have to dress in certain colours depending on their status. This therefore makes their status in society prominent to everyone. They are divided and women of different classes do not mix with one another unless for professional reasons. Offred continues to set the scene of Jezebel and then describes the clothing of the women. She says, ‘The women on the other hand are tropical, they are dressed in all kinds of bright festive gear.’ This is just one quote to describe the dressing of the women in Jezebel. Offred carries on great detail describing the different kinds of outfits. The idea of women all dressed differently emits a sense of individuality and originality. They are not under any certain status, position or categorised. The adjective ‘bright’ and ‘festive’ are just some of the adjectives used to describe the clothing. The adjective ‘bright’ portrays a feeling of happiness and the importance of light in a very dark place. In this case the importance of ‘excitement’ in a dull society like Gilead. The adjective ‘festive’ displays a sense of high spirits and energy. This connotes positivity and the occurrences of different things happening at once. Festive connotes festivals and the usual conventions of a festival are many events taking place on one occasion. This implies that there are different events occurring in Jezebel and different in the actual society of Gilead. Although these are just descriptions of clothing, it still conveys ideologies about the opposing environment, Jezebel.
In the opening paragraph of chapter 39 Offred speaks about how she notices and observes the desires of the commander to have sexual intercourse with her. ‘The commander has a room key...he shows it to me, slyly. I am to understand.’ The use of the adverb, ‘slyly’ indicates that the commander has to be sneaky and conniving to get what he wants. He has to be shrewd to fulfil his sexual needs. Offred then carries on expressing her emotions on how she feels when the commander is so physically close to her. She says, ‘But it’s no good, I lie there dead like a bird. He is no monster, I think.’ Atwood uses the simile, ‘like a bird’ to express what kind of feelings Offred is undergoing at this moment in her life. The thought of a bird brings freedom and liberty to mind but as soon as the word ‘dead’ is replaced before it, it suddenly emits a frozen, insensitive and a cold feeling. It’s almost as if Offred has got ‘used’ for sex so many times that now the feeling of being objectified has desensitised within her. After describing the commander as a ‘monster’ which gives him animalistic features, Offred uses the personal noun ‘I’ and abstract noun ‘think’ these two nouns convey a sense of confusion and perplexity. It’s almost as if Offred is not sure whether the Commander is a human with feelings or a evil heartless monster.
In conclusion, after having stated several ideologies expressed in some passages of the novel, it has come to notice that Margaret Atwood has a very negative view about men and their attitudes towards women. She expresses these views in harsh ways, making situations sound extreme and unreasonable which put ‘all’ men in a very pessimistic light. Atwood has made men look like users. It’s either using women for childbearing, using women for sex and pleasure or using women for other various things such as cooking and cleaning. She has somehow in every way possible shown that women are only used by men, their needed and perhaps not wanted as much. There is a different between want and need. Both have different feelings behind them.
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Nick's Monologue
I am excited. I haven’t felt like this in a very long time. This is going to be fun. How can it be that I am going to be so close to Offred. I would only ever dream for that to happen. Sometimes I would touch her leg or wink at her. But that’s it. That’s the furthest we ever got. I could tell though that she has something there for me. I know she does. That flame, that spark, that desire to be loved, maybe through physical means? Or emotionally…I don’t know. All I know is we have this attraction that draws us towards each other more and more. Maybe its love, maybe its lust, maybe it’s nothing! No. Actually, it is something. I am pretty sure of that. So now, I have been waiting for a very long time and the time for going into her room is slowly approaching. I’ve never been this nervous before, yet confident at the same time. Is it normal to feel this way? Is it normal to feel two emotions at once? I guess so. The wait is over. I step into her room. Everyone is sleeping; it’s dark outside and also dark in the room. I can tell from the way Offred is lying on the bed that she has been waiting for this moment too. She has been waiting as eagerly as I have. Oh wow, she looks so tempting. Well, I wouldn’t have to resist her any longer. I guess the time has come, to fulfil this need that I have. I could also call it a ‘want’. I want and need her. Why am I still waiting? This is it…
Sunday, 7 November 2010
A letter from a Commander's wife to Serena Joy
Dear Serena Joy,
I am writing to you in hope of recieving a reply very soon! I hope you are doing well. I was thinking of getting in touch with you ealier than the time it has come to but I have been so occupied with numerous other things such as knitting and organising a birthday party, I will be explaining to you further on in the letter.
Since I have finally found the time, I thought it would be perfect to reconnect with you and see how you have been. Are you gradually becoming better and better at knitting? I have to say, many of my friends have complimented the fine definition they have witnessed in the way I knit, something I have learnt to do over time. What kind of hobbies do you have Serena? Apart from knitting, it will be interesting to know if you have any amusing skills!
I would just like to add Serena, I absoloutley despise all Handmaids! Has you're Handmaid conceived yet? Oh, how painful it is to be watching such intimacy between the Handmaid and the Commander. It pierces right through me, but then I remember it is all for a good cause. I want a child, I want someone I can bring up, I want to be a mother so why not? There is no harm, right... there is no loss, just gain. So, I forget about my emotional pain and look at the brigther side. The Handmaid at my house is called OfSola. What is yours called? It is rather a peculiar question but I just suddenly felt interested in asking you!
I drove around some areas of Gilead after I was allowed the permission of my Commander. It was nice to get a breath of fresh air! It gives me a content, good feeling. To see the blue clear sky and some nature still present in Gilead. Takes me into another world, a world not so different, but yet still very different. I felt a deep adrelanine rush through me with excitement as I remembered that it is my birthday very soon! So here goes the invite...
Serena, my dear friend, you are invited! I would love it if you can come! It is on the 24th of July, I would appreciate it so much if you would be able to attend. As you know, you are one of my close friends and I would be very much dishearted if you can't be present on such a special day. All the wives will be getting together, sharing laughter and having a good time, I want you to be there, to be a part of it all. It has been a very long time since we have all congregated and I thought my birthday would be a perfect excuse just for that to take place!
Looking forward to reading you're reply Serena.
Take care of yourself,
Noor Solaa
I am writing to you in hope of recieving a reply very soon! I hope you are doing well. I was thinking of getting in touch with you ealier than the time it has come to but I have been so occupied with numerous other things such as knitting and organising a birthday party, I will be explaining to you further on in the letter.
Since I have finally found the time, I thought it would be perfect to reconnect with you and see how you have been. Are you gradually becoming better and better at knitting? I have to say, many of my friends have complimented the fine definition they have witnessed in the way I knit, something I have learnt to do over time. What kind of hobbies do you have Serena? Apart from knitting, it will be interesting to know if you have any amusing skills!
I would just like to add Serena, I absoloutley despise all Handmaids! Has you're Handmaid conceived yet? Oh, how painful it is to be watching such intimacy between the Handmaid and the Commander. It pierces right through me, but then I remember it is all for a good cause. I want a child, I want someone I can bring up, I want to be a mother so why not? There is no harm, right... there is no loss, just gain. So, I forget about my emotional pain and look at the brigther side. The Handmaid at my house is called OfSola. What is yours called? It is rather a peculiar question but I just suddenly felt interested in asking you!
I drove around some areas of Gilead after I was allowed the permission of my Commander. It was nice to get a breath of fresh air! It gives me a content, good feeling. To see the blue clear sky and some nature still present in Gilead. Takes me into another world, a world not so different, but yet still very different. I felt a deep adrelanine rush through me with excitement as I remembered that it is my birthday very soon! So here goes the invite...
Serena, my dear friend, you are invited! I would love it if you can come! It is on the 24th of July, I would appreciate it so much if you would be able to attend. As you know, you are one of my close friends and I would be very much dishearted if you can't be present on such a special day. All the wives will be getting together, sharing laughter and having a good time, I want you to be there, to be a part of it all. It has been a very long time since we have all congregated and I thought my birthday would be a perfect excuse just for that to take place!
Looking forward to reading you're reply Serena.
Take care of yourself,
Noor Solaa
Monday, 1 November 2010
The Handmaid's tale - Top three features
1) About loss, e.g. of freedom, mothers and children
This is what best describes the novel according to me because theres a strong sense of loss amongst the females in the society. The econowives are in financial loss. The handmaid's are confined to one job, their role is to serve the ones in authority by reproducing future generations. They are used as sexual instruments. The handmaid's are in loss of their dignity, self respect and piety. There is no freedom for women, they either do what their told or be sent to the colonies to work their until they die, the colonies are waste land after the happening of war. There are oil spills in that site and also other gunk which the unwanted people of the society of Gilead have to clean up.
2) About male power and conflict
There is a huge status gap between men and women in the society of Gilead. Men are in power and authority, women have no say, they do what they are told, there is no option for them. Even the women of high status, the commander's wives have no say in anything, they do what their husbands require them to. All the power is handed onto men, the society is run by men, the rules and regulations are made by men. Everything benefits them. It is a capitalist society, conveying the exact status of people, this cause conflict between the upper and lower class. Upper class have different rights compared to lower class.
3) About the exploitation of women
This is what best describes the novel according to me because theres a strong sense of loss amongst the females in the society. The econowives are in financial loss. The handmaid's are confined to one job, their role is to serve the ones in authority by reproducing future generations. They are used as sexual instruments. The handmaid's are in loss of their dignity, self respect and piety. There is no freedom for women, they either do what their told or be sent to the colonies to work their until they die, the colonies are waste land after the happening of war. There are oil spills in that site and also other gunk which the unwanted people of the society of Gilead have to clean up.
2) About male power and conflict
There is a huge status gap between men and women in the society of Gilead. Men are in power and authority, women have no say, they do what they are told, there is no option for them. Even the women of high status, the commander's wives have no say in anything, they do what their husbands require them to. All the power is handed onto men, the society is run by men, the rules and regulations are made by men. Everything benefits them. It is a capitalist society, conveying the exact status of people, this cause conflict between the upper and lower class. Upper class have different rights compared to lower class.
3) About the exploitation of women
Women are exploited in the society of Gilead. They are used for certain requirements to make the society 'better'. Before the war commenced, the poor men that had legal wives got to keep their wives after the war. These wives were called econowives, they serve the needs for 'other kind of women' while the handmaid's have a different role. The handmaids....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)